APOD: 2003 November 30 - A Venus Landing Explanation: This image is part of the first color panoramic view from
Venus.
A TV camera on the
Soviet Venera 13 lander that parachuted to the surface on 1982 March 1 transmitted it.
Venus' clouds are composed of
sulfuric acid droplets while its surface temperature
is about 482 degrees
Celsius at an atmospheric pressure of 92 times that of
sea-level on Earth.
Despite these harsh conditions, the
Venera 13 lander survived long enough to
send back a series of images and perform an analysis of the
Venusian soil.
Part of the lander itself is visible in the
lower right portion of the image.
An earlier Soviet Venus lander,
Venera 7 (1970), was the first spacecraft
to return data from the surface of another planet.